Familar south Charlotte shopping center eyed for expansion

A decades-old neighborhood shopping center could get a major facelift if the Charlotte City Council approves a recently filed zoning petition.

Touchstone Village LLC wants to redevelop its namesake shopping center to accommodate a 75,000-square-foot office building and retain 18,000 square feet of retail space.

The center, just south of N.C. 51 on 10.24 acres on the northwest corner at the intersection of Bevington Place and Carswell Lane, is home to businesses including Riccio’s Pizza Villa and the Yellow Rose bar.

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Walter Fields, a planning consultant working with Touchstone Village LLC, said President and CEO of InVue Security Jim Sankey is seeking office space to relocate his company’s corporate office.

InVue, which specializes in security solutions for high-theft merchandise, currently is off Lancaster Highway near Ballantyne.

“His company is expanding and business is growing. He’s doing well, and he needs more space,” said Fields. “He found this property, and what they’ve proposed to do is tear down the old grocery store and modify the shopping-center plan to be able to build back an office building.”

The zoning site plan indicates the developer would tear down the Tuesday Morning building in order to build a three-story office building on a different section of the site. Parking would be added where Tuesday Morning once stood.

Fields said he does not yet know how much existing businesses will be affected. He said he expects that Sunshine House Early Learning Academy won’t be affected by the development.

“It’s on its own lot. Nothing about this zoning case would affect the day-care center,” he said.

City Councilman Ed Driggs, who represents District 7 where the shopping center is, said he hasn’t heard much feedback from residents about the proposed zoning change.

“In principle, I don’t think it’s going to create a lot of new problems,” Driggs said. “The thing we’re most sensitive to is new traffic generation, but there are already traffic numbers at that location.”

The public hearing for the zoning request is scheduled for Feb. 16, according to city documents.

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